Tutorial Ripperdactyl Tactics for Age of Sigmar

After several games using them, I have come to the conclusion that Ripperdactyls are one of our strongest combat units in Age of Sigmar. Although definitely a glass cannon (5+ save, 3 wounds each) with the right combinations and piecing together of special rules (of which there are many for these unholy engines of destruction) they can be used in a variety of different battlefield roles to great effect.

TACTIC 1: Alpha Strike
Using this unit in conjunction with the skink patrol formation allows for a devastating turn 1 charge, capable of removing powerful units before the game has truly begun. So, in your first hero phase, place the blot toad within 6" of the unit you wish to attack "marking them" this is important as it greatly affects the weight of attacks that the rippers can bring to bear on the enemy. After your hero phase is done, bring the ripperdactyls in from reserves via the "Strike from the Skies" special rule from the battalion and place them 3" or as close as you can from the unit you wish to attack, then, after the movement for the rest of your army is complete, declare a "swooping dive" from the Ripperdactyls. Allowing them to re-roll to hit and wound rolls in the following phase. Don't forget to do this as it greatly affects the fighting ability of the Ripperdactyls in the following phase. In the shooting phase do not shoot the unit targeted by the Rippers as a canny opponent may take them off the facing closest to the rippers thus making the charge harder and possibly jeopardizing the strike. Obviously just charge the rippers in the charge phase, the chances of failing are pretty low (1 in 36 for a 3" charge) then on to the fun part: the combat phase. Leave the riders and claw attacks until after the attacks from the jaws. Because of the toad, each ripper gets 3 attacks hitting on 4+ with re-rolls because of the dive, making an extra attack for every attack that hits after the re-rolls, then those extra attacks roll to hit with re-rolls, this keeps going until you fail the re-roll of all your attacks thus not being able to generate any more attacks. In my experience this generates a hell of a lot of attacks which then in turn wound on a 2+ from "strike from the skies" with re-rolls from "swooping dive" almost all of the hits will wound leaving the enemy to take their armour saves. After the saves have been taken do the riders and claws. If there are no models from the target unit left and you are in range of another, use these to attack them, if there are still models in the target unit, finish them off with the claws and riders. Any survivors will probably be removed from the enemy taking battleshock tests.

TACTIC 2: Fear/Board denial
This doesn't require the skink patrol but, as always the patrol makes for a more effective method of dealing with enemy units that stray into the denial zone. Multiple Ripperdactyl units are also good in this case. This revolves around using the 6" bubble around the toad(s) to deny areas of the board to the enemy by placing them at either important strategic zones or on the maximum movement limits for powerful enemy units you wish to keep locked down, forcing the enemy player to either face the high possibility of having said unit wiped off of the table or waste turns outrunning the toads giving control of the game to you, the player with the ripperdactyls allowing you to pick apart the enemy army. This can be very useful in sudden death where board control for the smaller army is vital. Fear is also good with ripperdactyls, get your opponents to overreact to the fact that there are rippers and use that to control their setup. For instance: the enemy castles all their characters and elite units inside a blob of average infantry. Place toad in the centre of the blob and watch the army scatter or be ground to a halt as rippers kill a great deal of models and then ties up the whole blob in combat giving you an extra turn to maneuver and get further charges in.

I will try to update this, also any feedback and other tactics would be greatly appreciated so they can be added.

I thought that the Blot Toad doesn't count as an enemy model to either player?

Also, I've found absolutely nasty results from summoning a Saurus Scar-Veteran BSB as close to the enemy unit that the Ripperdactyls are going to attack as possible. This allows for re-rolls to hit regardless of whether you did "swooping dive" last turn or not, and significantly ups their "voracious appetite rule".

Abilities
Voracious Appetite: Each time a model
from this unit attacks with its Vicious
Beak and scores a hit, immediately make
another hit roll against the same target.Carry on until a hit roll does not score a
hit, then make any wound rolls.

Click to expand...

Roll until you miss for each terradon

Swooping Dive: At the end of your
movement phase, you can declare this unit
will swoop down to attack the foe at close
quarters. If you do so, then in the following
combat phase you can re-roll failed hit and
wound rolls for this unit as the enemy reels
from the sudden assault. Until your next
hero phase, measure range and visibility
for models in this unit as though they were
on the ground

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then do it again for each one

Toad Rage: In your first hero phase, place
a Blot Toad anywhere on the battlefield
for each of your units of Ripperdactyl
Riders. In each of your movement phases,
roll a dice and move the Blot Toad up
to that many inches. Blot Toads do not
count as enemy models to either side. If a
Ripperdactyl attacks an enemy unit that
is within 2" of any Blot Toad, it makes 3
attacks with its Vicious Beak instead of 1

Click to expand...

make that 3 times

So when the swoop on a toad target, they attack 3 times each and reroll to hit and wound until they miss, and then do it again.
oh and they also get a claw attack and spear attack too. don't forget you probably have 3 of these guys.

How are they doing it again?
I see: Movement phase - Swooping Dive -> re-roll failed hit and wounds
Combat phase (with blot toad) 3 attacks, with the re-rolls making it a lot of hits and wounds, doing the spear and claw attacks and then be done with it.

How are they doing it again?
I see: Movement phase - Swooping Dive -> re-roll failed hit and wounds
Combat phase (with blot toad) 3 attacks, with the re-rolls making it a lot of hits and wounds, doing the spear and claw attacks and then be done with it.

Click to expand...

Using the skink patrol organization you get the strike from the skies special ability for your rippers. Use that then those steps and claim a unit first turn.

Yeah the ripps are excellent while swooping down and charging, specially in large numbers...but in normal combat and if you have 3 models, they are ok. Better throw em a mystic shield and definitely have the bloat toad around.
I guess you can even grand them the skink chief's +1 hit command ability...but he's gott be close to them and i don't know if it counts if the ripps start hidden between the clouds...

After several games using them, I have come to the conclusion that Ripperdactyls are one of our strongest combat units in Age of Sigmar. Although definitely a glass cannon (5+ save, 3 wounds each) with the right combinations and piecing together of special rules (of which there are many for these unholy engines of destruction) they can be used in a variety of different battlefield roles to great effect.

TACTIC 1: Alpha Strike
Using this unit in conjunction with the skink patrol formation allows for a devastating turn 1 charge, capable of removing powerful units before the game has truly begun. So, in your first hero phase, place the blot toad within 6" of the unit you wish to attack "marking them" this is important as it greatly affects the weight of attacks that the rippers can bring to bear on the enemy. After your hero phase is done, bring the ripperdactyls in from reserves via the "Strike from the Skies" special rule from the battalion and place them 3" or as close as you can from the unit you wish to attack, then, after the movement for the rest of your army is complete, declare a "swooping dive" from the Ripperdactyls. Allowing them to re-roll to hit and wound rolls in the following phase. Don't forget to do this as it greatly affects the fighting ability of the Ripperdactyls in the following phase. In the shooting phase do not shoot the unit targeted by the Rippers as a canny opponent may take them off the facing closest to the rippers thus making the charge harder and possibly jeopardizing the strike. Obviously just charge the rippers in the charge phase, the chances of failing are pretty low (1 in 36 for a 3" charge) then on to the fun part: the combat phase. Leave the riders and claw attacks until after the attacks from the jaws. Because of the toad, each ripper gets 3 attacks hitting on 4+ with re-rolls because of the dive, making an extra attack for every attack that hits after the re-rolls, then those extra attacks roll to hit with re-rolls, this keeps going until you fail the re-roll of all your attacks thus not being able to generate any more attacks. In my experience this generates a hell of a lot of attacks which then in turn wound on a 2+ from "strike from the skies" with re-rolls from "swooping dive" almost all of the hits will wound leaving the enemy to take their armour saves. After the saves have been taken do the riders and claws. If there are no models from the target unit left and you are in range of another, use these to attack them, if there are still models in the target unit, finish them off with the claws and riders. Any survivors will probably be removed from the enemy taking battleshock tests.

TACTIC 2: Fear/Board denial
This doesn't require the skink patrol but, as always the patrol makes for a more effective method of dealing with enemy units that stray into the denial zone. Multiple Ripperdactyl units are also good in this case. This revolves around using the 6" bubble around the toad(s) to deny areas of the board to the enemy by placing them at either important strategic zones or on the maximum movement limits for powerful enemy units you wish to keep locked down, forcing the enemy player to either face the high possibility of having said unit wiped off of the table or waste turns outrunning the toads giving control of the game to you, the player with the ripperdactyls allowing you to pick apart the enemy army. This can be very useful in sudden death where board control for the smaller army is vital. Fear is also good with ripperdactyls, get your opponents to overreact to the fact that there are rippers and use that to control their setup. For instance: the enemy castles all their characters and elite units inside a blob of average infantry. Place toad in the centre of the blob and watch the army scatter or be ground to a halt as rippers kill a great deal of models and then ties up the whole blob in combat giving you an extra turn to maneuver and get further charges in.

I will try to update this, also any feedback and other tactics would be greatly appreciated so they can be added.

Click to expand...

What is a skink patrol is it a) skinks or b) something new if it`s b) please tell me what it is.

I feel like Rippers are practically mandatory for a Skink army, they provide some much-needed physical meat to the otherwise fragile army. In saurus armies, though, I find that making use of ranged specialists like Chameleons or Terrarons would be more valuable.

in the general's handbook, pg 106, it says "the 3rd Role of One: Any extra attacks, hit rolls or wound rolls gained by the use of an ability cannot themselves generate extra attacks, hit rolls or wound rolls. For example, the extra hit roll generated by a Ripperdactyl's Voracious Appetite ability could not also generate further hit rolls."

So, are ripper's still worth it in pitch battles and tournaments? Or would another formation be better? I do like the strike from the skies, though...

They are still worth it, though they won't be the powerhouse they once were they are still great for assassinating heroes and making monsters weak. Combined with chameleon skinks they can still be quite devastating.

in the general's handbook, pg 106, it says "the 3rd Role of One: Any extra attacks, hit rolls or wound rolls gained by the use of an ability cannot themselves generate extra attacks, hit rolls or wound rolls. For example, the extra hit roll generated by a Ripperdactyl's Voracious Appetite ability could not also generate further hit rolls."

So, are ripper's still worth it in pitch battles and tournaments? Or would another formation be better? I do like the strike from the skies, though...

Click to expand...

So say that you have a unit of 3 rippers and you have the toad near the enemy. You do 3 attacks per model. So 9 attacks. With the voracious appetite they all make an extra attack. So in theorie your rippers can make 18woundrolls dor the beaks allone.

Am i right or did i go wrong somewhere?

And after that you make 1 spear attack per model so a total of 3 for the spears.